Let me be clear: from the EU referendum itself to stripping South West MEP Mrs Girling of the party whip recently, it is plain to see your party comes first. Yes, we do realise this is politics in a first past the post system. But these negotiations are politics in a changed landscape, not in respect of your country deciding to Leave, but because we can now get Brexit updates directly from the EU channels, giving us both sides of the story.

Blaming the EU for everything is getting tougher isn’t ?

Which does beg the question: how many more voters will you lose if you keep playing this blaming the EU game ? I would not be so unfair as to blame you for treating EU nationals as bargaining chips. To my knowledge chips were never mentioned. Cards and bargaining capital however, were, not by you admittedly but by Brexit Ministers in your Cabinet.

Of course we are all chips or cards, nationals or immigrants, this is politics.

What has been clear all along, for those who follow, is that EU citizens’ rights have been tied to the trade deal that the UK government wants to strike with the EU, despite you assuring your voters we are a priority, and the latter infuriating some of more right leaning voters, you can’t win can you ? What is also clear is that the words your government uses, and most tellingly the lack of an agreement on citizens’ rights, clarify that the 3 million EU foreigners in your country are not just an asset that contributes more to the British budget than we take out, a fact so seldom reported, but that we are clearly extra capital to try and extract yet more exceptions out of the EU.

Yes, well, you did already have the deal with the most exceptions in the EU.

Sadly, I do not feel particularly reassured in your confidence that we are “within touching distance of agreement”. At least this is one point ardent British Brexiters and I can agree on. On 22 October Mr Fox stated that there can be no agreement on divorce bill until there is agreement on trade. As the EU process does not allow for Mr Fox’s wishes to be granted, as he well knows, and as anybody who follows the EU from outside the box of some British Media understands, it confirms to me that this government is slowly but surely paving the way for No Deal. Whatever that may me mean for the UK.

What does No Deal mean for EU citizens ?

It does seem that for some in your Cabinet and indeed your country, the UK should, by rights, get yet more special deals out of the EU now the ‘we are out’ card has been played. I cannot quite decide whether this card is an ace or a joker. Albion has indeed always been a shrewd negotiator, behind closed doors, so who knows how this European episode will pan out with the EU’s insistence and application of transparency ?

The most troubling proof of the state of play is when the Chancellor of the country I have lived in for 30 years openly calls the EU ‘the enemy’. Apologising or retracting is all well and good, thank you Sir, but it does prove the frame of mind for these negotiations, from this side of the Channel.

It was already plain for all to see, here and abroad, ‘enemy’ spelt out merely confirms it.

I hope you are confident, as I realise some of your Leave voters are, that this is a constructive approach to negotiate a ‘good deal’ for this country. How this approach can lead to a good outcome for EU citizens stuck in a country that seems intent on sailing the High Seas on its own, is beyond my limited European understanding of negotiations.

Despite your letter of ‘reassurance’ nothing concrete is forthcoming on EU citizens’ rights. We are still unclear what ‘lawful’ actually means to your British lawmakers, and more importantly which immigration laws will govern our future.

This country adopted us as equals under the law, pre June 2016. No clarity has been reached in 16 months. So what will change precisely ?

The biggest obstacle is your bugbear:
the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Now, let me be very clear.

This is our concern:

without the CJEU (it is no longer called the ECJ, please keep up) we would find ourselves at the total mercy of any future British government, with no recourse, should we be treated unfairly. Fair enough, we are after all in the UK ? Well, this dramatically changes the contract under which we lawfully settled in the UK: as an equal citizen, the contract under which we paid into the British system. Some may say that there is no risk to be concerning our little heads about, that surely no British government would ever treat foreigners any worse than British nationals.

Maybe. Yet when a few companies have already started to advertise (against the current law) for British only citizens, as if the UK was already out of the EU, which it is not yet, is it far fetched to be concerned that they might get away with it at some point it in the future ?

In days when Europhobe bully boys seem to be pulling the reins of this country in a direction that was not splelt out on the ballot papers, who knows who will be in charge of the UK in 10 years time when I need to get a pension I paid into for 40 years, see a doctor as I get old, or need to change job ?

You may reassure me now these rights will be granted, thank you.

But will they remain when you are no longer in charge ? When in 2017 the President of the closest partner of this country is openly racist, mocks disabled people, does not treat women as he does men, is intent on reversing the little universal health care only just gained, who knows what could happen in 2020 or 2030 in the UK, if this country faces no choice but to get closer still to the USA ?

We do not wish to have more rights than our British friends and family. Neither do we want to have less.

We have settled here under the terms of a contract you now propose to amend. The very fact that we were not allowed to have a say on this change of contract (though you did let us have a say on the specifically British matter of the future of Scotland) tells us already that we were not considered as equals before the EU referendum (though we were rather handy to get to keep a Union the government wanted).

You cannot now blame us for wanting to ensure our future is regulated under recognised international law when our rights are being amended. If a foreigner has a problem with a British institution, or the British government, how can we trust that a British Court of Law would not favour the British side ?

If we don’t like it we can leave ? Indeed.

But what about that contract, that money we have put into the British system (all my working life in my case, after the French government and my parents paid for my education) ? Will we face the same outcome as some of your ministers are proposing today: refusing to honour the costs of breaking a long agreed contract ?

Should we go whistle ?

Since you now wish the EU to be more creative in their approach, I hope you can apply your creative mind to understand something that will affect your country more so than it will affect foreigners: ministers calling us bargaining capital, or calling the EU the enemy, or government leaving us in limbo for months, or threatening that we will lose the recourse of the CJEU is not, in any way, conducive to keeping the very EU citizens you tell your people you wish to keep, or attract: the educated ones your country needs in many fields.

If I have a sought after degree, and I have the choice between any of 27 countries where I will be an equal, and one country where the law sees me as a foreigner with less rights than I do have in these other 27 countries, if I am a clever rational thinker with great skills, which should I choose ?

Ah yes, maybe the one that pays more.

Well, you’ll sure have to compensate for the lack of sunshine. How much will it cost you to get these good migrants you so seek ? Will you get the brightest and best, or the more desperate ?

I do not want to be an enemy, but if you corner me and threaten me with less rights, as you have effectively done for 16 months, I need to ensure my own country and its Union do protect me. The EU is the very enemy that allowed me to settle here lawfully 30 years ago, marry and have British children; the enemy this country is now fighting.

Let’s look to the future with history in mind: where does war posturing within Europe lead ?

The fear of war and the scars that it leaves for generations is the very reason the EU is so dear to so many Europeans, the very reason EU countries working and trading together was created after the second world war. Maybe the UK only wants trade.
But for many, Peace cannot be taken for granted.

Just look at the world today.

On a lighter note, may I take this opportunity to ask you to please never call me a citizen of nowhere, ever again. I am French and an EU citizen. It is quite possible to be both, in this day and age, as indeed many British Europeans who have bothered to vote for proactive and pro-European MEP’s of all parties (i.e. except UKIP, and dare I say some Conservatives) will agree.

Thank you for planning to make this new Settled Status easier.

Thank you for promising it will be no more than the cost of a British Passport; this will indeed be a vast improvement on the current situation. Let us hope that the Home Office’s proven track record of inefficiency, and recognised hostile environment that deliberately makes it difficult for non-EU foreigners to settle in the UK does, indeed, improve when another 3.3 million people need to be processed in a country that has never registered EU foreigners in a central or regional database, unlike most other EU countries.

Could you please make it clear to your electorate that it is not ‘the EU’s fault’ that your country chose to ignore the EU rules set up to ease Western European countries accessing the Union, or those enabling an EU country to send an EU citizen back home if after 3 months they have not found a job; or that a Lithuanian family keeps getting British taxpayers’ money into their British bank account and still access it when they have gone back home (as per the comment on your Facebook thread below your letter).

These issues are due to the British system, the problems were created because of British interpretation of EU directives.Yet the EU gets it in the neck.

As for the Home Office’s allowed 10% margin for error , it does mean at least 330,000 EU citizens could face yet more mistakes (like deportation letters as have been received in the last year), uncertainty and stress. Stress ? Oh well, we are only foreigners after all, so as some say, if we don’t like it we can go back where we come from. True, though it is worth reminding those in your electorate who so despise paying the EU anything, that this will mean much higher costs to the taxpayer in the UK. And this is a fairly straightforward issue that a computer system and a few new staff should eventually sort out.

Other issues however are proving far more of a costly headache aren’t they?

So much for saving money by sailing the High Seas,
this is just the first tip of the first iceberg.

Proposing to register 3.5 million people with your government’s track record for computer systems cannot fill me with much hope that it will be either smooth for us or cheap for the taxpayers (that is us too by the way, so we’ll pay twice for this new privilege). That this government can get a better system for foreigners in two years than it has provided for its own British Universal Credit claimants in five is pretty doubtful. I am glad to see Mrs Rudd acknowledges this concern. My skepticism remains.

So let me be very clear.

As far as EU citizens’ “Settled Status” is concerned, many EU citizens join me in not being reassured in the slightest. As for Brexit itself, well, that’s not just foreign EU citizens that need reassurance is it, it’s many British ones too.
As you well know.
I would not want your job for all the cheese in France, and I do love cheese, even British.

Of course I don’t think I’ll be kicked out when the UK leaves the EU. I am married to an Englishman, my children are British, with dual French nationality. I’ve lived here 30 years, but that guarantees nothing.

How am I going to be able to stay lawfully in this country once my EU passport means am a second class citizen? Yes, EU foreigners may become second class citizens if we lose our current rights to stay lawfully in the UK, on top of not being allowed to vote at national elections (indeed a EU rule), although the UK has made an exception for Commonwealth residents who are allowed to vote at national level, when their own British citizens living abroad over 15 years have lost that right.

The British government has guaranteed nothing about the future status of 3 million EU citizens here, and more shockingly have silenced British citizens abroad over 15 years (at least one million) over a matter that concerns them directly. The matter went to Court, the British citizens lost their case.

Consider this: How will I see a doctor?

Wait and see, they say. Keep calm it will be fine, I hear.
Will it? I don’t know, how should I carry on?
Imagine how stressful this new ‘not knowing’ is?

Please bear with me, this is NOT a Brexit rant, or saying EU citizens should keep more rights than non-EU or other ‘them and us’ divisiveness. We are where we are, these are just facts that need to be considered for 3 Million EU citizens lawfully in the UK who do not know which political end of Brexit will ‘win’. We are feeling vulnerable when many have been told “If you don’t like it, go home then”. Yes by a minority, a vocal one nonetheless.

If non-EU foreigners need a Permanent Residency card now, I will probably need one of these;
this is new to me, so how does this work then?

-> To get Permanent Residency a foreigner must have lived and worked in the UK for 5 years or be self sufficient with Private Health Insurance (as is the case under EU law). In the UK since November 2015 they also need to earn over £35,000. Or have a sponsor to fill in jobs that the UK has shortages in. Stay at home parent or carer do not necessarily tick this box.

-> To get PR we must fill in an 80 page questionnaire, hand in our passport (for up to 4 months), with tons of paperwork to prove residence, earnings, employment, or spouses’ details for homemakers. Mothers (or fathers) who chose to look after their children or an elderly parent whilst their partner works, maybe earning less than £35,000, may not be granted PR with these rules. We must also pass an ‘English test’ which many British people would fail.

-> We’re lawfully registered with HMRC, the NHS, local councils (in my case for 30 years) but these Departments do not ‘talk’ to each other; let alone the Home Office.

-> The Home Office is inundated with PR applications and currently takes about 4 months to issue the PR card (about 25% get rejected). They can keep passports for all this time, not answer the phone, or not reply to emails with legitimate questions for ages. Applicants are reliant on overworked Home Office staff. Exceptions do not make the rule, but one applicant born in Rome received a card stating “Romanian”. Employing an Immigration lawyer to guarantee the ridiculous 85 page paperwork is in order is not within everyone’s financial reach.

Can you remember the exact dates of your holidays in the last 5 years? If we went to visit family in the EU, often our holiday, we need these dates to apply. Wrong dates, rejection? Apparently so for some. I do not know the exact dates I went to see my family 2 years ago, let alone 5. I have not needed to keep this information. So I did not.

If you think the Permanent Residency system does need to be looked at by government and made simpler and fairer, please consider this petition:

-> Since November 2015 (i.e. pre-referendum) EU citizens wanting to get British Citizenship need to have had a Permanent Residence card for a year, then can apply.
(EU Spouses of British nationals need not wait a year but do need PR).

If you think it fair that EU citizens who have been lawfully here more than 5 years and whose children are British should be able to get naturalisation more easily if they wish to become British subjects (they will need to swear allegiance to the Queen), please check this other one out:

It’s been a strange time since July. Unsettling. There seems to be clouds surrounding me, the sun wants to come out but it’s hidden away by millions of droplets of information, misinformation, negotiations, empty statements. I am merely one of millions of little pawns that live here but were born there. Negotatiors can’t show their cards, tell us about the next move. In this global chess game, our rights to live in this country are carrots and sticks. In this game of realpolitik, never I have felt so surrounded by mist.

As I get older, will the doctor see me when I am sick if my name is spelt with an h? If I was born on the other side of the Channel. If my accent is not quite right. If my ways are a bit different? I’ve contributed, paid my taxes, I help a tiny bit in my local community. Counted for nothing when it was time to vote, 35 years in this country, and nothing. Equally, the Brits who have lived abroad for more than 10 years, lawfully, still British, forbidden to express themselves. Strange.

The mist will lift, and it is only fair that none of us know what will hide in the green Vale below. Heaven forbid we may know what the future holds. Will the fields still be green? Will it still be a pleasant land?

British people don’t do revolution, have been told for years. Well, this sure feels like a revolution, in an English kind of way. Theresa May maybe, but what next?

British people don’t do revolution, am always told. I’ve been boring my friends senseless about the political spectrum in the UK forever lurching to the right and warning that if ‘we’ continue in this direction, it will lead to a revolution. But British people don’t do revolution. And the UK is not France.

Well, if you don’t think that the UK is in the middle of a revolution just now, I don’t know what will convince you.

I know that a people that loves queueing is not likely to step out of line. A people that until recently trusted its national broadcaster, may take time to notice the imbalance between the amount of air time one man and his anti EU rant is afforded, without an equal counter balance of the opposite end of the political spectrum.

So whilst the rhetoric of migrants, the EU and the elite being the source of most evils became mainstream, the Greens remained painted as lefties with no clue about real life not so much because we could hear what they had to say and think so for ourselves, but because their side of the story was so seldom put forward that many thought they knew what the Greens stood for.

“I could never vote for them, they want to ban horse racing” said a friend. No they don’t, they want to ban the use of a whip in horse racing. They want to close dangerous tracks and ban trainers with poor records. I imagine horse lovers would agree with this.

“They’re just a pressure group, they’ll never be running the country”, many say. They only go on about climate change. Peace and equality is all very well, it’s not the real world. They’re blinking communists. Ouch. Now that’s a swear word.

After years of listening to negative comments from a small group of people on our BBC and our media, who pointed out obvious facts like the number of people who have arrived in this country from abroad, the failings of a huge organisation that is trying to get 28 countries and governments to work together for the first time ever in history, an elite that takes too big a cut and does not leave enough crumbs to keep poverty at bay, the stories have become normal for many, accepted as an answer in itself even, by some.

Here is something else to think about. It is misleading to think that the people who voted us out of the EU were only disenfranchised ‘working class’ families and the old generation. What tipped the balance, is that a whole swathe of middle class, middle aged well to do English people, had all sorts of reasons for thinking that the EU needed to go. Accountability and democracy being two major ones. Although when I’ve discussed it in more detail, it often came back to trade and not wanting to bail out Southern Europe.

Will there now be a tsunami or will the waters open for the UK as they did for Moses with advantageous trade agreements all over the world in sight? As the Moses story can be interpreted from many angles, so can the future of the UK. I can’t help but wonder quite how much dairy products, lamb and wine the UK will have to agree to import if the Kiwi trade negotiators do come and help us sort out new deals, as they have kindly offered. Forget Italian tomatoes that block EU deals and let’s get our fruit and veg flown from the other side of the world.

Let air miles trump local.

What will the UK do when they negotiate with the US will depend on how good these international trade deal negotiators we now need to hire are, and how we will ensure all clauses are indeed in the interest of the UK. Will Whitehall do their job and warn the elected ministers in charge -who they see as their boss, rather than their real bosses, the electorate-? Busy moaning about the unelected Commissioners in Brussels we forget we also have unelected civil servants in this country, only most of us have absolutely no idea who the heads of departments are in Whitehall.

It is easy to find out who the EU Commissioners are, not quite so transparent to learn who works at Whitehall.

I don’t doubt for one minute that the British are good negotiators. No other country in the EU managed to get the deal the Brits had. Have, still. No Article 50 yet. Trade, negotiated in the days before human rights as we understand them now, gave the UK its Commonwealth. But whilst the Germans are sure as hell not going to want to lose a big market for their BMW’s, that does not mean they are going to lie down on the floor with their hands in the air in surrender so the UK can trample them. Compromises will be inevitable.

So the question is, what will the UK have to give?

I spoke to a woman who had voted Leave. She did not understand why the UK should have to accept free movement of workers to have access to the EU market. This is not understanding the first thing about the EU. Or business. Or, I would suggest, balanced relationships.

The enticing concept of optimism depicted during the referendum campaign, the breath of fresh air from an unknown politician is maybe tempting, is it not as utopian, if not as detailed, as any Green manifesto? But never mind, in our ultra accelerated world, Leadsom has just stood down from the leadership contest.

The thing with revolutions is that rarely do the instigators who point out the obvious consequences of a system, end up being the ones who lead the country forward a few years later, or as is the norm these days, within hours. When the French peasants helped get rid of the monarchy, they quickly found themselves enrolled in an army led by an emperor.

When the students of Paris took to the streets in May 1968 to point out the flaws of capitalism, they were first followed by workers’ strikes. France ground to a halt. When De Gaulle threatened to resign and called for a general election, France had been so hindered by the inevitable consequences of the strikes, and the left was so divided between the socialists and the communists that the population voted the right back in, for fear of a communist take over of a socialist government that had no majority on its own, so had no choice but to work with the communist party.

Strikes, divided left. Rings a bell right? In the non striking country the UK has become.

As a French friend of mine said about France “France is ungovernable.” I’d say so is the UK. Or the US. Or indeed the EU. Or as democracy stands, any other 21st century democracy. A government cannot govern with all its citizens in mind, so it mainly governs with its party members and potential party members in mind, whilst trying to keep the lobbies happy. That’s part of the reason why both Conservatives and Labour lurched to the right, whilst on the ground party members would rather they both veered back towards the left. Conservatives have clearly actioned this sooner, with May making noises about workers on boards of directors, or government backed project bonds to boost infrastructure.

Ministers govern with the help of special advisers that seem to care more about what will appear in the papers tomorrow, or on twitter in five minutes, than any long term structured plan. They govern with opponents’ advisers that will come down on them like a ton of bricks if they are naive enough to say (even indirectly) something stupid like “I’m a Mum so I know better than a childless woman”.

Little bites of nonsense to keep us occupied whilst the Junior Doctors have just had their new contract imposed, whilst the UN has pointed out that the UK is breaching international human rights in view of the number of children living in poverty due to the austerity programme. And the UK is discreetly sending soldiers to Poland whilst the Chilcott inquiry is busy pointing the finger at one man. Were civil servants, who are there to advise, clear enough in their advice, or were they worried about their job; or simply ignored?

When a system shows flaws, it is more important to understand these flaws so as to improve the system, rather than spending time hating one man for his final decision. By all means take him to The Hague, but let’s learn and push to improve the system, surely.

The UK has just been given a little taste of direct democracy with each vote counting for something, unlike in a general election with safe seats galore. But with no clear constitution or balanced media to guide and inform its people on the mechanics of a referendum, the democratic can of worms has been kicked down the road, and the road is very dimly lit for Article 50, let alone the future of the UK.

The revolution has started.

In a very British way. Orderly queues to the polling stations, the people have spoken.

What is revolutionary is that Politics is being discussed far more than it ever has in the thirty years I have lived here. Over a drink at the pub yes, but even in shops, down the street, online and even with total strangers. Strange. Neoliberalism is no longer a new buzz word branded about by leftards. People who have voted Conservative for years, but were conservative not Conservatives are swearing they will never vote Conservative again.

People on the left long for Cameron to be back in charge, in a state of stupor, for fear of what lies ahead. As May is talking of workers on the board of companies which seems to have served Germany rather well for years, the left is busy tearing itself apart. Labour is bound to split and argue which bit of Labour can be called Labour because Socialism is still a dirty word the press barons love to ‘Red shame’.

The EU is finally in the centre of the discussion, as it should have been for years. When people were being asked to vote for their MEP, the majority didn’t bother (35% did, now that’s a proper minority) except when they were voting against the EU, which is how the South West of England ended up with two UKIP MEP’s out of four, and one Green. No liberal, no labour. Extremes prevail. Is it any wonder the political landscape looks like an episode of Bergerac?

But hey, nobody said revolutions were easy.

And if you’re going to have a revolution for Europe, you would not want Germany to start it, with its painful past, France and its racially divided society, Italy, Spain or Greece that would crash the Euro having been hit so hard by the international neoliberal banking crisis; or an Eastern European country with its communist past. If one country was going to shake the EU from the stubborn path it is currently taking, which many EU citizens do not want to follow, it had to be the UK.

The one country that knows only too well quite how difficult it is to keep a United Kingdom united.

Some Leave voters believed that the only way to avoid a United States of Europe, or a European Army, or dysfunctional trade deals was to not only threaten to leave, which did not work, but to actually leave. And they have been heard. I won’t say they have won, this is not a football match with a trophy and we start again next year.

But if trophy there is, then it now needs to be filled in a way that means nobody goes thirsty. We sure need to keep an eye on the trophy holder and her team.

Democracy is not just “vote, now get on with it” for four years.

Politicians need feedback from the electorate. If we let our MP’s just get on, they’ll get on. They may not listen, but they sure won’t do anything if we don’t raise our concerns. So when May promises seats for workers on boards, it needs to be delivered effectively. When the country is sending more soldiers on the border to Russia to back up NATO, we need to question the reasons before more aggression occurs. It was NATO that broke the deal they made with Russia after the Cold War ended, Russia is neither always the bad boy, nor the only bad boy. Is it the EU that is expansionist, or is it NATO?

And if it is both, what are the consequences?

It’s easy to say all politicians are scum, in it for themselves, but it’s useless. Is there really such a big queue of people wanting to become politicians? Unless we get more British people to stand up and be counted, whether they voted Leave or Remain, the ship is going to go on a course that will let the Captain ignore some of the winds the crew know are coming, and throw many overboard. Down below deck, political parties on the left and centre are increasing their membership daily, and at last politics, globalisation and even compassion are being discussed more widely.

As a very clever friend of mine said recently, whilst we’re all busy narrowly discussing Brexit, this will pale into insignificance when hundreds of thousands of people are displaced by floods or drought; as happened recently in China and will continue to happen. Whether man made or Mother Earth’s cycles is not the argument to lose any more time over for climate change, the reality is that extreme weather patterns are having an effect, people will continue to move around the planet to places where they can survive.

What is our contingency plan for when this happens, when we already cannot cope with migrants in the Mediterranean and NATO has just come to the rescue? And what if it is the UK that is being attacked, or flooded. Let’s face it, a heat wave is pretty unlikely. Then again, in this new mad world, who knows?

The Gulf Stream has just crossed the Equator for the first time, what will that do to our climate?

Equally important, how do the old industrialised countries regenerate themselves in the 21st century when the behemoth that is China is trading all over Africa.

None of us have the answers, there is no simple answer, but the country that started the industrial revolution that took the world on the path of capitalism has effectively just voted to stop what their country ignited. There is no doubt that it is the evolution of capitalism that has created the state of the world as it is now and this is effectively what the electorate have voted against.

No. They said. Enough.

Yet the government in power is totally based on global capitalism, as little state as possible, private is better than public, and it does feel like it also says, never mind the consequences. Or then again, they may start to change their tune slightly to stay in power.

As it stands, no national government on its own is able to solve the inevitable consequences of globalised capitalism. And that vote for change landed on the lap of the British citizen, away from the EU.

Capitalism led to neoliberalism. Communism led to dictatorships.

As May ’68 is deeply ingrained in the French psyche,
so will June 2016 be a marker in history.

It is up to the people, not just the politicians how the story unfolds. The British people have voted for accountability and democracy. This is positive. Many Europeans stand with them. This is a unique opportunity not to spend time feeling depressed or angry, nor victorious let alone vindictive, but to spend time getting better informed and engaged. A second referendum now would be dangerous as it would anger disenfranchised people further. Waiting to invoke Article 50 to ensure the ground is well prepared is the only option. The EU can say ‘no pre negotiations’, this is nonsense. The EU decision makers know they are on shaky grounds and governments will obviously talk. Come on Brits, make it work not just for the UK or the EU but for Europe, that continent you are a part of, like it or not.

What citizens need to do now is spend time shaping political parties; from Conservatives that have listened to UKIP and press barons for too long, to the Greens via Labour and Liberal Democrats. If you don’t want to join a political party, join a Union, or a Chamber of Commerce, or a Human Rights Group, or local government.

By all means don’t, if you can’t be bothered, or think it’s worthless, but that will only ensure the political classes continue on the path well trodden with blinkers on. Or, as in the case of the Conservative party, close ranks and sort things out internally when it comes to ensuring they get to be Captain, whilst the left puts forward an MP who voted for the Iraq war to contest the current leadership, days after the Chilcott enquiry comes out.

Who needs to read fiction?

So, do we want to continue to feel as we surely all do now, totally impotent in the face of the turns of event that come our way daily?

The “two party UK” is long gone, what was scantily hidden has exploded. The EU has long had a more widely based political spectrum. Coalition does not have to be a dirty word for a country, even if it can prove lethal for the minority party. It makes it more difficult to govern, but that’s the way it is, it represents the citizens more democratically.

Let’s get active whatever our beliefs.

All of us. And we will all have to compromise. Or we’ll keep going round in circles.

If the birth place of the industrial revolution can lead the way to a fairer society without further bloodshed, would this not be the best social revolution?

Now my British friends, are you up to it? I know many of you are. At last.

My new cooperation with Maddie Grigg on her latest blog, A Dorset Year.

It feels strange that I met writer Maddie Grigg via twitter. We both live in the back of beyond in deep rural West Dorset, yet it is via the weird world web that we connected with each other some years back. Weirder still, I moved into her village from my Far from the Madding Crowd Dorset hill on the other side of that Emminster town Mr Hardy writes about.

Even I wrote about what is now our village, I guess, family and all, when we got together to write a blog for a year with third writer Sophia Moseley; The Lady Shed.

Not one to ever stop and rest, Maddie has started a new project. A Dorset Year. And we’ve decided that my photographs and her words could complement each other rather well. She’s even given me a gallery. Sometimes she just runs off, inspiration grabbing her with no time to spare and she uses her own photography, which to be fair, is pretty damn good.

Together we’ve covered a local Yew Tree that would have been around in Roman times, selfish off roaders that trash an ancient path, winter weather. Who knows what will happen in the Spring, Summer and Autumn. We’ll see where this new path of words by Maddie and images by Nathalie takes us.

It will be Dorset, a whole year of it, but who knows where the wind will blow.